Chapter 27

Setting:

Maycomb County, Alabama.

The month of October, 1930's.

Characters ( Chapter 27):

• Jean Louise Finch (Scout)

  • Narrator and Protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird.
  • Lives with her father, Atticus, her brother, Jem, and their cook, Calpurnia, in Maycomb County, Alabama.
  • Acts and dresses like a tomboy.
  • Was a ham in Ms.Merriweather's Halloween pageant.

• Jeremy Finch (Jem)

  • Scout’s older brother, by four years.
  • Lives with his father, Atticus, his sister, Scout and their cook, Calpurnia, in Maycomb County, Alabama.
  • Typical American boy, fantasizing about playing on the football team.
  • Grows up to become more mature and understanding of Maycomb and the ways of people throughout the novel.

• Atticus Finch

  • Scout and Jem’s father.
  • A lawyer in Maycomb.
  • Brother of Alexandra.
  • A widow
  • Against racism and being prejudice.
  • Agrees to defend Tom Robinson, an accused black man of rapping Mayella Ewell.

• Bob Ewell

  • Unemployed member of Maycomb’s poorest family.
  • Only man fired from WPA for laziness.
  • Accused Tom Robinson for rapping his daughter.
  • Left handed.
  • Earns no respect or trust from the society.

• Ruth Jones

  • Welfare lady
  • Said Bob Ewell openly accused Atticus of getting his job and was upset enough to walk to Atticus's office and told him about it.

• Judge Taylor

  • Not a Sunday-night churchgoer, but his wife was.
  • Savored his Sunday night alone in his big house reading the writings of Bob Taylor.
  • Asked Atticus to represent Tom Robinson during the trial.

• Helen Robinson

  • Tom Robinson's wife/widow.
  • Mr.Link Deas's employee.

• Link Deas

  • Tom's employer.
  • Helen's employer.
  • Threatened to put Bob Ewell in jail if he assaulted or touched Helen Robinson.
  • Supports the Robinson family

• Tutti (Sarah) and Frutti (Frances) Barber

  • Maiden ladies, sisters and lived together in the only Maycomb residence boasting a cellar.
  • Rumored to be Republicans.
  • Migrated from Clanton, Alabama in 1911.
  • Their ways were strange to the Maycomb citizens, they wanted a cellar nobody knew and they dug one and spent their lives chasing generation of children out of it.
  • Both deaf.

• Grace Merriweather

  • Composed an original pageant entitled Maycomb County: Ad Astra Per Aspera.
  • Author and narrator of the pageant.
  • Wants the children to dress up as Maycomb's agricultural products for her pageant.

• Mrs.Crenshaw

  • Local seamstress
  • Made Scout's pageant costume with chicken wire and brown cloth to resemble a ham

Summary:

Its October in Maycomb and Mr.Ewell was fired from his job at the WPA, for laziness. After being fired, Bob Ewell continues to discriminate against the blacks by following Helen Robinson to work. This aggravates Link Deas, Helen's employer, thus threatening Bob Ewell that he will be arrested if found following Helen again. This worries Aunt Alexandra because the Ewells tend to keep long grudges and she fears of Bob gaining revenge of Atticus. As Halloween comes, the town sponsors a party which plays host to a "agricultural pagent" where local children dresses up as food. Scout was assigned to be a ham and during the pagent she misses her cue. When Jem and Scout walks home from the pageant, they find someone following and eventually attacking them. Jem was hurt during the attack and when Heck Tate came to the Finch's home, they find out that Bob Ewell was behind the attack, but he was found dead with a knife plunged under his rib cage.

Vocabulary:

• Mutter- Say something in a very low or barely audible voice

• Nondescript- Lacking interesting features or characteristics

• Croon- Hum or sing in a very low volume

• Chunked- Move with or make a muffled metallic sound

• Pinprick- A prick caused by a pin

• Eccentricities- Unconventional and slight strange

• Purloined- Steal something

Photo Bank:

Ear Trumpet-

Ear Trumpet

Livery Stable-

Butterbean-

Apple Bobbing-

Taffy Pulling-

Pin the Tail on the Donkey-

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